V. I. Lenin

Meeting of the Central Committeeof the R.S.D.L.P.(B.)
 
      October 16 (29), 1917

Delivered:1 November, 1917First Published:Proletarskaya
      RevolutsiaNo. 10, 1922; Published according to the
      hand-written copy of the MinutesSource:Lenin’sCollected
      Works, Progress Publishers, Moscow, Volume 26, 1972,
      pp. 276Translated:Yuri Sdobnikov and George
      Hanna, Edited by George HannaTranscription & HTML Markup:Charles
      Farrell and David WaltersOnline Version:Lenin Internet ArchiveNovember,
      2000

Comrade Lenin considers that Kamenev’s policy must be
      checked at once. There is now no point in negotiating with the
      Vikzhel.[1]Troops must be dispatched to Moscow. He proposes a resolution on
      the Vikzhel. The Vikzhel is not represented on the Soviet, and
      must not be admitted to it; the Soviets are voluntary
      organisations, and the Vikzhel has no support among the people.

Comrade Lenin considers that the negotiations were to serve as
	diplomatic cover for military operations. The only correct
	solution would be to put an end to the wavering of the
	waverers and to become firm ourselves. Assistance must be
	given to the Muscovites, and our victory will be assured.

Comrade Lenin considers the question a fundamental one, and
	thinks it is time to put an end to wavering. It is obvious
	that the Vikzhel sides with the Kaledins and Kornilovs. There
	must be no vacillation. We are backed by the majority of the
	workers and peasants and of the army. Nobody here has proved
	that the rank and file are against us. Either with the agents
	of Kaledin, or with the rank and file. We must rely on the
	people, we must send propagandists into the countryside. The
	Vikzhel was called upon to transport troops to Moscow; it
	refused, we must appeal to the people, and they will overthrow
	it.

[1]The
      reference is to the Bolsheviks’ participation in a
      conference called by the Vikzhel for talks on the composition of
      the government.

Vikzhel, the All-Russia Central Committee of
      the Railwaymen’s Trade Union which was dominated by the
      Mensheviks and Socialist-Revolutionaries, was one of the
      bulwarks of the counter-revolution after the victory of the
      October insurrection in Petrograd. On October 29 (November 11),
      1917 it adopted a resolution calling for a so-called
      “uniform socialist government”, consisting of
      representatives of all parties, from the Bolsheviks to the
      Popular Socialists. The Conference on the composition of the
      government opened on the same day and was attended by Menshevik
      defencists, Menshevik internationalists, Right
      Socialist-Revolutionaries, Left Socialist-Revolutionaries, and
      members of the Postal Union, the Petrograd Duma, the Executive
      Committee of the Soviet of Peasants’ Deputies, etc. The
      Bolshevik Central Committee decided to attend stating that any
      talks on the enlargement of the government and the All-Russia
      Central Executive Committee could take place only on the basis
      of the programme for Soviet power adopted by the Second Congress
      of Soviets. Kamenev and Sokolnikov were authorised by the
      Central Committee to attend. The All-Russia Central Executive
      Committee also sent its representatives to the Conference, among
      whom was Ryazanov.

The Mensheviks and the Socialist-Revolutionaries expected to
      play the leading part in any coalition government and to use it
      to fight the dictatorship of the proletariat. In the
      Co-ordinating Committee set up by the Conference, they demanded
      that resistance to Kerensky’s troops be stopped and
      insisted that the All Russia Central Executive Committee should
      be replaced by a People’s Council which would have a
      majority of members representing the Executive Committee of the
      All-Russia Soviet of Peasants’ Deputies City councils and
      other organisations which they had under control They proposed
      the establishment of a new government headed by Chernov or
      Avksentyev. The Bolshevik delegates who attended took a
      conciliatory attitude and did not object to discussing the
      proposals tabled by the Mensheviks and the
      Socialist-Revolutionaries.

The Bolshevik Central Committee discussed the question of
      negotiations with the Vikzhel and the behaviour of the Bolshevik
      delegates on November 1 (14). The majority censured the policy
      of conciliation and proposed that the talks should either be
      broken off or formulated as an ultimatum. Kamenev, Milyutin,
      Rykov and Ryazanov insisted on a continuation of the talks. A
      C.C. resolution said the parties of conciliation were
      negotiating to subvert Soviet power, and the C.C. therefore
      authorised Bolshevik representatives to attend the talks with
      the sole aim of exposing the futile attempts to set up a
      coalition government, and terminating the talks. The All-Russia
      Executive Committee discussed the progress of the talks on the
      night of November 1 (14) and adopted a Bolshevik resolution
      drawn up in the spirit of the C.C. decision of November 1
      (14). However, the opposition group of Kamenev, Zinoviev, Rykov,
      Milyutin, Larin, Ryazanov and others, who took a Right-wing
      opportunist stand, opposed their line to that of the Central
      Committee and fought against the C.C. decision. On November 2
      (15), the C.C. adopted a resolution on the opposition within the
      C.C. (see pp. 277-79) At the All-Russia Central Executive
      Committee meeting on the night of November 2 (15), following the
      speeches of the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries who demanded a
      review of the Committee’s decision on the terms of an
      agreement, Kamenev and Zinoviev pushed through a resolution
      which clashed with that of the Central Committee adopted
      earlier. Their resolution provided for a change in the
      composition of the government and gave the Bolsheviks only half
      the government posts. The opposition voted for this
      resolution. Following the ultimatum which the majority of the
      Central Committee presented to the opposition minority (see
      pp. 280-82 on November 3 (16), Kamenev, Zinoviev, Rykov,
      Milyutin and Nogin withdrew from the Central Committee, while
      the last three and Teodorovich resigned from their posts of
      People’s Commissars. They were joined by Ryazanov, Larin
      and several others. On November 5 or 6 (18 or 19), the Central
      Committee once again demanded in the form of an ultimatum that
      Kamenev, Zinoviev, Ryazanov and Larin should stop their
      disrupting tactics (they had come out against the C.C. decisions
      in non-Party organisations) (see p. 301 On November 7 (20), the
      Central Committee published inPravdaan appeal to all
      members of the Party and all working classes of Russia, branding
      the opposition as deserters of the revolution who had abandoned
      the principles of Bolshevism (see pp. 303-07)